JSOnline: State continues to lag in venture capital

Just one company reported raising venture capital in Wisconsin during the first quarter, the worst start to a year since 2005.

The company, Madison Vaccines Inc., which is focused on developing therapies for prostate cancer, raised $1.5 million in the quarter, according to the MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the National Venture Capital Association. The report is based on data Thomson Reuters collects from a survey of venture capitalists.

Nationally, 969 companies raised $12.1 billion of venture capital in the first quarter, a decline of 11% from the same period a year ago, the report showed. There was a decline in first-time financings, and an increase in the amount of venture capital going to expanding and later-stage companies, said Tom Ciccolella, venture capital market leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The largest share of funding nationally went to software, biotechnology, and media and entertainment companies, the report said.

Wisconsin, which ranked in the bottom third of all states in the first quarter, has never been among states that raise the most venture capital.

“We see two issues: one, we need better reporting processes in Wisconsin’s venture community, and two, even with that better reporting, we need a better pipeline of start-ups,” said Joe Kirgues, co-founder of gener8tor, a training program that produces many of the state’s high-potential start-ups.

By the Wisconsin Technology Council‘s count, 28 companies raised a total of $45.7 million during the first quarter, said Tom Still, president.

Some of those deals might have involved angel groups, making them too small for MoneyTree’s parameters. But Still said the top three should have been big enough: Shine Medical raised $11.5 million; Understory (a gener8tor company that is in the process of moving to Madison from Boston) raised $7.5 million; and Engineered Propulsion Systems raised $3.6 million.

“It just goes to show the larger story of underreporting in general around these deals,” Still said.

That said, Wisconsin still lags dramatically. State companies have not in any year of this century managed to cumulatively raise more than $100 million.

About Us

The Wisconsin Technology Council is the leading catalyst for tech-based development in Wisconsin. It is the independent, non-partisan science and technology advisor to the governor and the Legislature. Learn More